


Close Enough

by NeverComingHome



Category: Chicago Fire
Genre: Bromance, F/F, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 15:23:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1095593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverComingHome/pseuds/NeverComingHome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Waltzmatildah who requested insight into the Shay&Severide friendship.</p>
<p>Set preseries to early season one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close Enough

They kept running into one another and for some reason Leslie seemed intent on hating his guts despite the fact that in another life they could’ve been the sort of comrade soldiers who tapped spears before heading into battle. Kelly probably didn’t help with the whole not hating his guts thing, but in his defense there was a difference between taking EMT courses for those wanting to be paramedics and doctors and people like him who thought of it as a mere box to be ticked. They were cocky know it alls in their own ways. Kelly remembered when he couldn’t walk past the library without seeing Leslie hunched over textbooks with a look on her face as if she was trying to convert her physical strength into brain power. During class she sat in the back corner so she could plant her feet on the wall and place her notebook on the tops of her thighs, filling it with lecture points, but word got around that she was always the first to show up to the good parties and the last to leave.

Kelly preferred to spend his class time doing more productive things like getting phone numbers, cracking jokes or catching up on some much needed rest since his spare time was spent taking practice tests, hanging out at fire stations and wishing he could fast forward to being a cadet or, even better lieutenant. He did his studying like every other normal person in their twenties: locked in his room with five different types of caffeine drinks the night before the exam.

“Nothing like a little friendly competition, eh?” He said after their student numbers showed up as the classes matching top grades.

She sized him up with a glance and a snort. “What competition?“

Kelly began to go on the offensive when their professor shuffled up, thanking Leslie again for pointing out the error and posting the corrected scores. Kelly’s face quickly pulled in as he noted the raise in her percentage and the drop in his own.

It set the tone for whatever it was that came before their friendship. Kelly thought she was a cool person who obviously had great taste in bars seeing as she kept showing up in the same ones he visited. Unfortunately he was at the point in his life when everything he said to a woman he wanted to spend time with sounded like a come on, so in an attempt to put the ball in her court he always sent her drinks whenever he saw her in hopes that she’d come over to thank him.

Leslie thought of Kelly as the guy who always seemed to zero in on the only bisexual woman at an otherwise heterosexual gathering and who kept sending her drinks despite the fact that she’d dated one of his roommates for (almost) an entire week. One night at 24, a new gay bar that was quickly becoming her favorite place, she was handed a drink and spotted him leaning against the wall with a beer in hand.

“Alright, what’s your problem? Do I need to literally make out with a girl in front of you to get the point, don’t answer that.”

He straightened up immediately. “No! It’s not like that at all. I’m not attracted to you in the slightest.”

Her head pulled back as if for a second she was almost insulted, but she only nodded. “Good. Same.”

“Sweet.” He took a swig from his bottle. “Do you like pool?”

“Who doesn’t?”

“I don’t.”

“Yeah, me neither. Round of darts?”

By the time he was a cadet and she was doing ride alongs they didn’t know each others life histories or middle names even, but they could recite the idiotic things they’d done in their youth, predict what woman would turn the others head, and what song they sang that let the other know it was time to call a cab. It was all well and good until she met Clarice.

“We had plans.”

“So make other plans. Clarice really wants me to go to this sculpture thing.”

“So you’re bailing on me.”

“Calm down, I don’t have to check in with you every minute of the day.”

“Whatever,” he rolled his eyes, “that’s not what I meant.”

He’d invited her over to play the new first person shooter he’d snagged, before they sold out ,with the intention of asking her to move in. His current roommate was segueing into the nonstop party phase that Kelly was weaning himself off of and if Leslie’s transfer to 51 went through they’d be able to carpool.

“Think I overreacted?” Leslie asked Clarice on their way out of the studio arm in arm, leaning into her girlfriend so they swayed down the pavement towards her car as they walked.

“No, he’s probably threatened. We’re getting serious and he’s feeling left out.”

“We’re getting serious?” Leslie stopped, turning around to pull Clarice into her. “A month ago you weren’t sure you could fall for a woman and now we’re ‘getting serious’?”

Clarice only smiled and kissed her. Later she also suggested Leslie put some space between her and Kelly. Leslie didn’t have anything bad to say about her new partner Gabriela and it wouldn’t kill her to have more women as friends. Kelly could practically hear the words in Clarice’s voice when they came out of Leslie’s mouth, but they still hurt. He wanted to say things like bros before bimbos and point out that any girl who tried to pick and choose her girlfriends friends wasn’t the kind of girl to be trusted. Then again, Leslie was always bailing him out of trouble for his tendency to regret the words when they were half out of his mouth, but kept going because he’d already committed himself to it so why not dig the hole deeper?

For her part Leslie would always be the first to drag him away from the fight only to have a slur thrown her way and leap at the offender before Kelly could notice she wasn’t right behind him. They had each other’s backs, but when it came to women like Clarice sometimes all a friend could do was bite their tongue and be there when it backfired-even if they wanted to cause the backfiring.

  
~*~  
“Hey, Severide, right?”

He smiled at Gabriela and kicked out a chair. “Dawson, take a seat.”

“Thanks, I’m here to meet Shay.”

“Yeah? How she been?”

“Good. We’re coming to 51 next week, can you believe it? We didn’t even request each other.”

“Ah ,well, cheers.”

Gabriela bounced around a little and in a way she reminded him of Leslie, always moving and looking around like it would break her to be still for even a moment in comparison to him who hadn’t moved at all except to take a pull. Dawson stopped fidgeting long enough to ask about Clarice, she hadn’t known Leslie for as long as him and didn’t want to overstep, but there was something about her. Given permission to vent Kelly vented and when he felt like he couldn’t think of anything else bad to say? He vented some more.

“She threw it in my face one time how Shay opened up about the miserable things that happened to her which is such bull. Shay is the happiest person I know.”

“Maybe she should take the hint.”

Kelly let out a breath of a laugh. “Yeah, like if I had to be around Clarice all the time I’d be miserable too.”

“Hey, she’s in love. Everyone has that person that drives them crazy, makes them forget everyone else in the room, but I’m sure she knows you were just trying to look out for her.”

“We don’t need to look out for one another. I don’t ask for her help and she never asks for mine, but we respect each other. The first time I say anything negative about Clarice and she suddenly can‘t pick up a phone? That’s not respect.” He sniffed. “Shay’s a big kid and right now that’s what she’s being. A big kid.”

Someone shoved him into the bar which put him instantly on his feet, somewhat clumsily, but there nonetheless to see the look of rage in Leslie’s eyes. Gabriela remained seated, staring between the two until finally Shay turned to look at her.

“Let’s go, it’s getting a little crowded in here.”

“I just ordered a shot.”

“I’ll get you another one.”

At the last minute Kelly reached for Leslie’s wrist to stop her, but she wrenched it away and all he could do was let her. When she transferred to 51 things were stony, but professional. A week after Clarice was out of the picture they literally ran into one another at the park in a collision of too low beanies, tangled earphones and swears that made an old woman go red in the face and not from the cold alone.

“I got a scrape.”

“I got a bigger one.” Kelly held up his arm to show her.

“Least it’s not bleeding.”

“You’re not bleeding. Where?”

She turned her chin to show him the smallest of red dots. “You’re such a wimp.”

“Your beanie tore.”

“What?!”

He tore it off his head and she started laughing. He began to explain about the designer he was dating who’d been letting him “borrow” expensive merchandise, but stopped short.

“Busy today?”

“No, I was actually going start looking for a new apartment.”

“With Clarice?”

“No.”

He asked if she felt like hanging out with his girlfriend and her friends also known as the current winter models for the charity event happening next weekend.

When they moved in together it was with the understanding that they’d had things right before, but there were things they knew this time around. Leslie didn’t like other people judging her and Kelly didn’t like people being flakes, the agreement to act as if they were sharing a building rather than a flat helped clear the air.

The first time Kelly was injured on the job it was on a call to Mckinley where a row of houses had been set on fire by an angry ex- home owner’s association member. They exited their trucks to see a line of flames with people exiting on hands and knees while begging someone to save their friends or relatives in between the coughs. There were cowards and heroes as inky black figures in the windows while the faint cry of a child faded into the sound of sirens.

Kelly’s axe touched Leslie’s shoulder pack briefly before they began running to where they were needed. While on the ladder someone or something burst through the window and slammed him against the wall, his body falling in a crumpled mess into the bushes. Leslie sprinted towards him, patting down the flames and staring only briefly at the glass tearing through his leg before snapping into action.

“I’m fine. Go help Dawson.”

“Your leg is-”

“I can take the pain.” He used his arm to shove her back, looking over her shoulder and then back to her. “I’d tell you if I couldn’t. Trust me. Go help Dawson.”

She took the prepped needle, stabbed it into his leg and ran off before his howl of agony could end. When all the fires were put out and the bed rest taken by all members of the squad it was Kelly who strutted in with a red and orange hacky sack that he kept in the air for a full minute with his still bandaged leg.

“Show-off.” She muttered and caught the hacky sack when he kicked it at her head.

~*~  
“Remember Mckinley st?”

“Of course I remember.”

“So you know I wouldn’t be asking if I wasn’t really hurting.” He fidgeted, eyeing her pack. “Come on. I thought we were friends.”

Leslie remembered when she had a million reasons for not talking to Kelly Severide, but in that moment she couldn’t think of one. She rummaged in her pack for a moment then tucked a baggie into his inner coat pocket.


End file.
